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Michingan Fiber Fest Re-Cap

This past weekend, Pete, Maddie & I went up to Michigan for the weekend.  We stayed up near Lake Michigan and Maddie had a blast walking along the beach!  And several hours on Saturday were reserved for the Michigan Fiber Fest! 

Pete & Maddie were very patient walking through all the booths with me, luckily Theresa showed up just as they had had enough and she & I browsed the last few booths as the rest of our families took in the show the herding dogs were putting on.

I didn't purchase too much, however that wasn't because of a lack of good things to see.  Pete actually talked me into buying that yarn pictured up top.  It's from Persimmon Tree Farm and it's a wool/mohair hand dyed "pot luck" yarn according to the label.  I have plans to weave it into a scarf or shawl of some kind.  I absolutley *love* the colors.  This is about as close to perfect as I can imagine.  All my favorite colors rolled into one colorway!

I also had to visit Alice from Foxhill Farm -- the Cormo woman!  (No website, I'm afraid.)  Orange was the color of the day, so I scooped up this 4 oz. bag of 90% cormo, 10% tussah.  If you see Foxhill Farm at a fiber fest, get some of Alice's yarn or fiber!  You'll be happy you did!

I also bought the last item I needed for my lace pal at the fest, so I can't show that here.  And I have something coming in the mail -- pictures when it arrives!

Perhaps tomorrow I'll show you my finds from the antique shops and outlet mall!

WIP Confessional

It's time to lay it all out.  Well not all. . . I know I have more wip's than I'm showing here, but these are the ones I'll probably finish.  (Well mostly. . .)

Keepsake Shawl knit in many colors of Koigu.  I started this in 2004, I believe and I came up with a great system for knitting it so that I could just pick it up and remember exactly which yarn to use and which row I was on.  So why does is sit?  Who knows.  I really want to finish this one up, so I think I will make it my #1 knitting priority.

Ingeborg, oh Ingeborg.  I started you back when the knit-along began.  Was that 2004 also?  And every winter I pick you up and get re-invigorated . . . for about 15-20 rows.  Maybe this will be they year that you get finished!

Trekking socks started for the "Trek along with Me" knit-along.  I never did take a picture of me trekking along.  Is it still going on?  I'm *awful* with knit-alongs (see Ingeborg above) and should never, ever join them.  These socks will get finished though.  I love Trekking yarn!  It just takes me several months to finish a pair.

New felted bag design I'm playing around with.  It's a smallish bag and I'll finish it up in the next week or two.

What is this thing????  Why am I making it?  Okay, this is the Amineko and I decided to make it with Encore from the stash.  I should have gotten a different yarn.  I didn't really want a red cat and I don't really care for this yarn, so I never work on this project and the featureless head is all that has been made.  Time to rip this one out and start over with a new yarn, I think.  This was my only crochet project in the works and it's a failure.  Ugh!

Oh!  My quilt!  I love these fabrics and want to get back to work on this soon.  The last month has been so busy and I really need time when I want to quilt, so this has been neglected.  I know that cooler, quieter weekends are on the way though, so it will progress!

Mountain Colors woven scarf.  I love how the weaver's wool from Mt. Colors is sort of striping, sort of not in this scarf.  A free hour or two and some good podcasts to listen to and this will be finished!

I'm still making good progress on that lovely pink fiber from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  The third bobbin is well on it's way to getting filled up and then it's on to plying.  I have no doubt that this will be finished up very soon.

Paradigm Lost cross-stitch sampler.  I often want to work on this but there are several impediments to my progress -- First, I don't have good lighting pretty much anywhere in the house and I really need it to work with this dark thread on linen.  Second, it's in a small basket, so I have to keep it stored off it's stretcher bars.  So I can't just pick it up and stitch a bit -- it requires set up time.  Third, my eyes get tired at night and that's usually when I find time to craft.  Hmmm. . .

Elsa Williams Jacobean Crewel Embroidery.  Not sure why this has stalled, other than the fact that I have so much going on. 

I realized that I haven't listed the Kumihimo braid I'm working on either.  And I'm sure there are other things.  Maybe posting photos of my wip's on a regular basis will get me excited about them again.  It seems to have worked.  I'm already looking forward to getting in some rows on the Keepsake Shawl!

In other news, guess what tomorrow is.  It's not my birthday, or wedding anniversary, but it is *an* anniversary for me. . .

Toy #2 -- The Lucet

Okay, my love for all things Golding almost led me to lose my mind and precious $$ to a Golding Lucet.  And while I do agree that they are absolutely gorgeous, my German Applewood lucet from The Lucet Lady is quite fetching, don't you think?  (And it was less than half the price of the Golding -- I love you Mr. Golding, but I have to save my pennies so I can buy one of your looms someday!)   

I messed around with it a bit on the plane and my cord was quite uneven, but the blue cord on the right is my second attempt and already I'm starting to get a better handle on the tension.  I tried some Noro Kureyon just for kicks and I actually couldn't pull it very tight for fear of having it break, so I ended up with a very loose cord -- kind of like a really skinny (2 stitch, I suppose) i-cord. 

When you pull nice and tightly you get a cool 4 sided cord that is quite strong.  Here's a close up of the little blue cord pictured on the right in the top picture:

Hopefully that gives you a better idea of what the cord looks like.  It really is sqaure, which is quite nice looking!

My lucet came with written instructions without any pictures or diagrams, but to tell you the truth it was so easy to use that none were needed.  In addition, there are quite a few websites where you can get additional instrucion if you do run into trouble.  I found info here & here and instructions for something called a double lucet here.

Tomorrow I may have to show you the Brooks Farm scarf that I've been knitting away on!

Back from Maryland

It's very rare to find a friend who shares your passion for fiber and who will also put up with all of your quirks for a long weekend.  Theresa and I travel well together and I had a great time this past weekend -- first overnight in Chicago and then on to Maryland for the big festival!

It was so lucky that KIP happened to fall on the Thursday before we were leaving and I got to stop in and see a bunch of the Chicago knitters I hadn't seen in a while and to meet quite a few new people too!  I really want to try to get up the KIP in the future.  It was a really fun group!

Friday morning it was off to O'Hare and on to Maryland!  Once again I got to meet up with a great group of people, there were Claudia, Silvia & Norma (whom I had first met at last year's festival) and Jen, Laurie, Cassie, Cassandra (of the purpleheart Canadian reproduction spinning wheel -- do you have a blog?), and Rachel (the wood worker -- definitely blogless) -- whew!  I know there were others that I met throughout the day too, including one blogger who gave me a super cool "Knit" button.  (I love it!)

So. . . how does one approach a festival such as this?  Well, here's the low-down.  The vendors seem to stay in the same place each year, so you can plan your attack in advance -- very important if there is something you really want!  The good stuff sells out kind of early (STR was gone in about an hour) and you want to make sure you have the best selection, right?  Theresa & I hit the Cromo booth first, Brooks Farm next.  Here's my "loot" from day 1:

I'll talk a bit more about each find in the coming days, but I will say that it was the year of the fiber tool for me.  I got a lucet, weavette and a pot holder loom for Maddie -- fun stuff!  I also tried a bunch of spinning wheels and will be doing a podcast on spinning wheels in the next week!

I will leave you for now with this cute cuddling sheep picture -- I had to snap this photo.  How could I resist?

Leaving on a jet plane. . .

The count down has begun!  In a couple hours I leave for Chicago where I will stop in at KIP at Letizia's.  (Little known fact -- the first KIP was Bonne Marie, Theresa, Pete, Maddie & me!  I haven't made it to one since, but I was there at the start!)  The next morning Theresa & I fly out to Maryland! 

So, if you are going to MS&W and you see me stumbling around in a fiber induced haze, say hi!